|
|
|
The Visitor |
Past Messages |
As a family going through the process of ordination in the United Methodist Church, we are consistently faced with the temptation tobelieve that someone else has already lived our lives for us. We are given mentors, and we are put into environments of field education where we meet people who have been doing the work that we feel called to do. We meet people who have had full lives in relationship with the denomination in general and the local church in specific. If you think this is not scary, your not trying hard enough to imagine it.
Think
of Ebenezer Scrooge looking at his own grave in his vision of Christmas future.
We are constantly asked to imagine our lives unfolding in ways that the lives
before us have unfolded; and as we look at out future we cry out to God. Is this
what has to be? Is this my actual future or is this merely a possibility in my
future? The specter never answers. The specter is silent and grim, sitting,
pointing, waiting for us to choose to live or wait to die.
Hope comes to us when we live the way that we were created to live, trusting in God and engaging with the community in which God put us. Each person we meet is an opportunity for meaningful companionship in our journey. We share our joys and our sorrows, our dreams and our memories. We share our food and our time and our resources. We share our very essence and all that God has given us because these are not our property these are our gifts. God has made each one of us a gift, and as a gift we exist without meaning unless we are given away. I am so thankful to Reno First United Methodist Church for being a gift to my family. In your selflessness you have broken our gaze from the horrors of Christmas future. In your selflessness we will keep the memories of the time we shared alive in our ongoing work as the body of Christ.
Our last Sunday as Student Associate Pastor (SAP) is May 18 th, 2008. I pray that you know that our time together has been a pure blessing. Keep us in your prayers, and we will always look back to our memory of our service here when we think the specter is pointing at the tombstone.
Rev. John Auer is resting comfortably at home following foot surgery. "A look through the Auer Glass" returns next month!
|
209 West First Street
Reno, Nevada 89501 |
